Florida State U. Recognizes Ex-l.v. Man At Conference

August 20, 1987|by PHYLLIS GUTH, The Morning Call

A former Lehigh Valley resident was honored recently by Florida State University at a two-day conference held in conjunction with his role in training several dozen doctoral and postdoctoral students from around the world.

During a dinner attended by about 150 persons, including the honoree's wife Mary Lou and their six children, Dr. Lloyd Beidler learned a postdoctoral fellowship had been created in his name that will permit someone to study in his laboratory at the university.

"It's very common to go to a lab where they have expertise," Beidler said during a recent telephone interview.

About 10 former students came from Japan; others traveled from various parts of the United States to attend the conference in his honor.

A Greenawalds native, Beidler is embarking on a half-time retirement program developed for university employees.

Despite his partial retirement, Beidler won't be taking life easy. He will continue to work in research under the terms of a new program at the university which allows retirees to work both semesters while being paid for only one. His pension will make up the difference in salary.

Beidler, who teaches biophysics, is doing research in the field of taste. He is interested in knowing how the taste buds work, how they respond to different things put in the mouth. An article about Beidler and his work titled "Mr. Taste," a name bestowed on him by a fellow scientist, appeared in "Research in Review" last year.

The average taste-bud cell lives only 10 days, the professor said, noting that new cells are being generated all the time.

Beidler has two five-year grants from the National Institutes of Health for his work. One grant is for the purpose of studying the effect of aging on the taste receptors.

In connection with his work, he collects plants that have an effect on taste. One plant produces a berry called miracle fruit which temporarily changes all sour-tasting foods into sweet ones. "For the next 30 minutes, even a lemon will taste sweet," Beidler said.

The professor is finishing up research on another berry of interest that was once used in harems. Women who ate the fruit "would smell good for a whole week," he related.

Beidler noted that his ancestors came to Quakertown in 1740 and remained in the area for more than 150 years when Beidler's grandfather moved his family to Allentown. In the biographical section of a research paper authored by Beidler, he wrote that his forefathers purchased land from William Penn's family in 1789.

Beidler still has a number of relatives in the Lehigh Valley, including a sister, Doris Williams of South Whitehall Township.

The article, "Mr. Taste," reveals that Beidler grew up in a rural section in a home that had neither a bathroom nor running water until he reached his teens. His aptitude for science became apparent when he was in seventh grade.

Beidler lived near a dump and used the spare parts found there to build radios, bicycles and other gadgets. Beidler referred to it previously in print as a "true learning laboratory."

In South Whitehall High School, he used study hall periods to work in the physics and chemistry laboratories, but never thought of attending college. A visit with his high school principal to Muhlenberg College, however, changed all that, resulting in a scholarship for the budding scientist.

The professor has since been honored by his alma mater, which gave him an alumni achievement award in 1963 and an honorary doctor of laws degree six years later. Before joining the Florida State faculty in 1950, he was Jenkins Fellow of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University where he previously received his master's and Ph.D. He was a Johnson Scholar in Medical Physics at the University of Pennsylvania from 1946 to 1949.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science, he was named Florida University's Distinguished Professor of the Year in 1971.

Beidler said he's too busy for hobbies, but he does make time for travel. "We travel all over the world," he said. The "we" refers to his wife, a Baltimore native.

Mary Lou, he noted, is in the antiques business, and buys pieces on visits to the North. She resells the antiques in Florida.